Gildwall
| genre = | foundation = 6 March 1977 | founder = Government of the Republic of Gaza | location_city = Gaza City | location_country = Gaza | location = | origins = | key_people = Naomi Palmer ( ) | area_served = | industry = | products = | services = , , and and | revenue = | operating_income = | net_income = | num_employees = +22,000 | parent = | divisions = | subsid = | owner = | company_slogan = | homepage = gildwall.co.gz | dissolved = | footnotes = }} Gildwall Media Ltd., commonly referred to as Gildwall, is a Gazan company which serves as the only media company based in Gaza. Gildwall was originally founded and sponsored by the government of the republic, though it was privatised in 1986 and has since operated on a private basis. As such, Gildwall competes primarily with as a news source for the and Middle Easterners abroad, with its largest audiences coming from , , the , and . The network has 19 bureaus internationally, with at least one on every continent except . Gildwall is distributed through televisions broadcasts and internet articles, with articles in , , and . The company serves to spread information on various subjects, including politics, business, religion, culture, crime, sports, and lifestyle for both domestic and global audiences. History The Gazan News Company was founded on 6 March 1977 under the administration of William Rosegild through the National Prosperity Reconstruction Act, 1977, which allocated funds for the creation of a news company which would provide reliable and factual information for the public. Intended to be a state information relay network, the company, referred to commonly as Gazan News, was sponsored by the government after its creation to provide both and broadcasts, with radio broadcasts beginning on 11 January 1978 and television broadcasts beginning on 21 May 1978. Originally limited to reports on domestic policy and government affairs with the public, views began to decline because of the uninteresting and boring subject matters that did not interest the public at large. As such, by the beginning of 1979, many members of the National Assembly called for the privatisation of the company so that a board of members would be able to better analyse the wants of the market rather than the government as a whole. Rosegild and his administration, however, wanted the company to remain largely committed to broadcasting both factual and relevant topics rather than feeding a public which had become akin to news sources during the conflicts to establish independence in the earlier half of the decade. In a move of compromise, the administration backed off from direct government intervention, and instead, simply funded the company and established a separate, profit-motivated board of directors. In order to better establish Gazan News as a private, non-state intervened news source, the board decided to give the company a new image. As such, on 3 July 1980, the board adopted the name Gildwall Media Company, in honour of the first famous on Gazan airwaves, Franz Gildwall. The new board decided to change the programming of the news source from domestic news to include various topics, including politics, business, crime, sports, and culture. The focus of the company was also changed from simply domestic news to include more international and regional programmes as well. The company received permission from the National Assembly to broadcast on several different airwaves on radio networks to include both news and popular music of several different formats. As such, Gildwall Radio channels 1, 2, and 3 began broadcasting separately on 16 August 1980. The same diversification was done with television channels for news, adult-based shows, youth-based shows, and sports programming, and Gildwall Television channels 1, 2, 3, and 4 began broadcasting on 1 October 1980. The new format and programming was extremely popular, with the company soon attracting not only a Gazan audience, but a regional one as well. Programming coverage was extended into in 1983 and to , , and in 1984. The extreme profitability of the company saw a reduction in public funding, and in 1986, the government of David Mortiz privatised the company on 18 April 1986, with it being incorporated independently on the 20th of the same month as Gildwall Media Ltd. Gildwall continued to remain popular on a regional basis throughout that same decade, with coverage eventually being expanded into most countries by the beginning of 1990, excluding , , and Kurdistan. The beginning of the that same year brought Gildwall to international attention as being one of the few internationally syndicated media companies to have an extremely objective and slightly approach to the events unfolding in Iraq. As such, those sympathetic to an anti-American and anti-invasion viewpoint began to take up Gildwall as their primary source of news, with those people mostly being Middle Easterners and their descendants who lived abroad. In 1991, Gildwall opened its first offices in and , and began to syndicate its news programming to and on 17 September 1991. Since then, the viewership of Gildwall expanded exponentially, inducing massive profits and causing an outright rise in the ability of the company to cover news globally. Throughout the last decade of the 20th century, Gildwall expanded from bureaus in just the to at least one bureau on every continent in the world expect . The saw another boost in the views of Gildwall as a news source, and the also increased its foreign viewership. Gildwall began to build a reliable, if not pro- and pro- , base from which it gained much attention throughout primarily Western audiences. As such, Gildwall has become a news source aimed at Middle Easterners living outside of the Middle East, as well as a source of both information and entertainment for people living within the region. Operations Gildwall Media broadcasts across 70 countries, with 19 international bureaus contributing to the flow of information. Broadcasts are primarily in , though and language stations also contribute to the network's radio, television, and online systems. Entertainment broadcasts are primarily limited to the Middle East, while the more popular news and journalism portions of the network are broadcast internationally. Television Radio Online Category:Gaza Category:Events Category:Companies Category:Gildwall Media